


The Core Problem

by thevillainofthisstory



Series: Marching Inexorably Forward [1]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Gen, Ghost Cores, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Pre-Slash, alternate season 3, pompouspep
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-07
Updated: 2017-09-07
Packaged: 2018-12-25 03:23:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12027054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thevillainofthisstory/pseuds/thevillainofthisstory
Summary: Vlad destroys his own office and has to work from the Fenton's kitchen for an afternoon. Even though he's suspicious of Vlad's every move, Danny offers to help when it becomes clear that Vlad is having trouble with his ghost core. Naturally, the only solution is a neck massage.





	The Core Problem

**Author's Note:**

> I've only picked out the parts of season 3 that I liked. Phantom Planet never happened. Danny is seventeen in this fic because staying the same age for three seasons just doesn't make sense to me. This is one of those 'write the fic that you want to see' scenarios.

Danny didn’t know what he had done to deserve this. Was this the trade-off for ghost powers? No, he was bullied and beaten before he got the ghost powers. He must have done something in a past life, that was the only explanation for why his entire life was crumbling before his eyes. Well, his entire afternoon anyway. An afternoon spent entertaining Vlad Masters while his parents were investigating a supposed ghost sighting three towns over. Vlad just so happened to pop in while they were heading out because of course he did. After listening to some sob story about his office getting ruined by some fire related accident his parents had eagerly agreed to let Vlad use their kitchen as an office space despite having several perfectly good mansions he could be haunting.

Danny couldn’t stop smirking at the thought of Vlad’s office burning down; the idiot was a fire elemental. He probably torched it himself, even if it was by accident. Danny was always freezing stuff, he knew how temperamental core powers could be. It was just funny that after however many years of superior understanding Vlad had over Danny, he could be just as inept at times.

Understanding the cause did not help him understand the effect in the least. Vlad sat at their kitchen table with reports and papers and who knew what else strewn across every available surface. Vlad had explained to his parents what he was doing but Danny had tuned him out by then. It wasn’t relevant information and he really didn’t care what lies Vlad told people. Danny had enough trouble keeping up with his own lies.

Vlad had been hunched in the same position for three hours which meant that Danny had been sitting in the living room, staring down the back of the older halfa’s stupid silver head for three hours. Danny was bored; long stakeouts had never been his strong suit. He really preferred slipping in quietly and invisibly, gathering his info and getting the heck out. The longer he stuck around, the more chances there were for something to go wrong. But for the last three hours, nothing had gone terribly wrong and it had Danny on edge.

Danny sighed dramatically. This was stupid. The only diabolical thing Vlad had done all day was get a glass of water. And every few minutes he would twist his head to the side as though he had a crick in his neck. Danny wasn’t inclined to be sympathetic; Vlad could have been in his own office in his ergonomic chair that Danny may or may not have played with whenever Vlad wasn’t around.

The stupid glass of water that Vlad had poured earlier was still sitting on the kitchen table. Danny eyed it balefully. It was taunting him. Watching Vlad do nothing was like doing nothing by proxy. Somehow that nothing squared had caused Danny to work up quite a thirst. He was literally sitting there, a few feet from his own kitchen, dying of thirst. It was completely unfair.

Sure, he could go in and get something to drink and maybe a snack while he was at it. But then Danny would have to talk to Vlad. Alone. They didn’t exactly have a history of pleasant conversations. Danny could just picture his mom coming home to find the house wrecked, ectoplasm smeared into the carpet and burn holes in the walls. He didn’t think that “ghosts did it” would be an acceptable answer considering their house had several anti-ghost systems in place. Systems that he had mostly disarmed, but that wasn’t the point. The point was that Danny doubted he’d be able to make it in and out of the kitchen without making an incident with the older halfa.

After another twenty minutes, Danny decided that filling the ravenous void his stomach had become was worth whatever damage Vlad attempted to inflict on him. It was in Vlad’s best interest to let Danny into the kitchen; Vlad couldn’t kill Danny himself if Danny died of starvation first.

Steeling himself, Danny walked silently into the kitchen. He had considered floating so that he made absolutely no noise, but it that seemed a little stupid since Vlad definitely knew he was there. Skirting around Vlad, Danny made it to the fridge without comment from His Most Glorious Mayoralness. Grabbing a soda and the leftover pasta from the night before, Danny then decided to press his luck with the microwave.

His luck held for ten seconds. “Daniel I am trying to work,” Vlad snarled without looking up from his paperwork. “Go do something besides watch my every move for a while, your breathing is grating on my nerves.”

“If you could wait literally thirty seconds I would be out of your hair,” Danny snapped. Frankly he was amazed that he had gotten this far. “And you’re just going to have to put up with the staring because of reasons. Okay?”

“I’m not here to ruin your day Daniel I simply wanted a quiet space to do some actual work. I know the concept of work is completely foreign to you but please try to be a little more courteous,” Vlad groused. Danny turned his attention away from the microwave just in time to see Vlad try once more to work out a kink in his neck.

“It’s not my fault you burned down your office,” Danny shot back. That was just a guess but considering the murderous look Vlad deigned to level at him, Danny must have hit the mark. “Dude, that sucks so hard. I thought you were supposed to be the powerful, all-knowing Vlad Plasmius, holder of all the secrets of our kind. And you can’t even keep your core under control?”

“As if you’re any better. You have yet to move beyond the stage of dropping through floors and accidentally floating. There’s no way that you could possibly have control of your core powers. That’s incredibly advanced-”

Just because he could, and to shut Vlad up, Danny nudged ever so slightly at his iron cold core. Vlad’s glass of water froze solid, interrupting the man mid-rant. Danny didn’t even bother to hide his smug expression. Maybe he had finally gotten one over on Vlad.

Vlad stopped short, turning to look at the solid chunk of ice in his glass. For a moment he stared at the glass, mouth ever so slightly open in shock. He recovered quickly but Danny committed that look to memory; he doubted he’d ever see it again.  
“Congratulations you’ve ruined a perfectly good glass of water,” Vlad mocked in an attempted recovery. “It’s unfortunate that you can’t do anything else useful.”

Danny scowled and ate some more pasta. He knew he had a long way to go before he was at Vlad’s level. He had ever farther to go to get to on his evil alter-ego Dan’s level. All things considered, Danny shouldn’t have even been sitting there. Somehow he had managed to walk away from beings so far beyond him that the only explanation was divine intervention; Clockwork was probably looking out for him.

Rather than retreat back into the living room, Danny hopped up on the counter. Vlad should have known better than to insult Danny. All it did was make him annoying. “So what are you doing, anyway?”

Silence.

“Vlaaaaaad.”

Still nothing.

“Come on Vlad talk to me. I miss our banter.”

Vlad’s eye was starting to twitch and he was gripping the table tightly with one hand. The other hand still valiantly held some form or another.

“Did you know that Box Ghost and Lunchlady are dating now? Gross right?”

The smell of burning plastic wafted through the air. Where Vlad was gripping the table had begun to bubble as he lost control of his core. Thinking quickly, Danny dropped his lunch and lunged forward, slapping his hand on the table and freezing it solid. Vlad ended up coated in a thin layer of frost that immediately melted.

“VLAD!” he barked. “What the hell, dude? Do you know what my parents are going to do to me when they see that?”

Vlad simply glared mulishly at his hand which had frozen to the table. “Not again,” he muttered. Tugging on his trapped appendage did nothing. Vlad was stuck to the table but Danny was too angry to laugh.

“How am I going to explain-wait a minute,” Danny interrupted himself. He had just processed what Vlad had said. “What do you mean ‘not again’? Is that how you torched your office? By losing your temper?”

“I did no such thing,” he sniffed, pretending to be offended. Danny knew Vlad better than that. “Now release me.”

“I was joking,” Danny continued as though Vlad hadn’t spoken. “I didn’t think that you actually couldn’t- Vlad, can you really not control your core powers? I’m being serious.”

“Of course I can. I meant to melt your kitchen table, it will be hilarious to watch your parents yell at you,” Vlad asserted weakly.

“If you can control your fire power then melt the ice.”

“I don’t have to prove anything to you,” Vlad declared angrily. His eyes flashed red and the ice covering his hand glistened a bit as though it was starting to melt ever so slightly.

“Of course you do. I’m the only one there is that you actually can prove any of this to,” Danny reasoned, ignoring his poor sentence structure. Vlad understood what he meant, he was sure. “Now melt the ice without melting the table.”

Vlad glared at his hand. Nothing happened. Danny sighed. This was new territory. Other than his Ghostly Wail, there was nothing that Danny could do that Vlad hadn’t been able to first. Having mastered this ability, or at least the control of it if not all the nuances, before Vlad was an oddly frightening thought. Danny should have been pleased but instead all he felt was a terrible sense of responsibility. Vlad could hurt himself, could hurt other people if he wasn’t careful. Danny remembered how miserable he was when his core first started presenting.

With a resigned sigh, Danny pulled the ice back into himself, summoning the cold to his core. Vlad refused to meet his gaze; he was a very proud man and Danny had no idea how to go about offering help without getting singed.

“That’s what your headache is,” Danny announced out of nowhere. It made sense. He had come down with a cold when his core flared up. Walking around the table, Danny put his hand to Vlad’s forehead.

“Don’t touch me,” Vlad snarled, batting Danny’s hand away. “And I don’t have a headache.”

Danny held his hands up in a placating gesture. “You’re burning up and you keep fidgeting like you’ve got a kink in your neck. It’s a tension headache, right? I’ve been watching you for four hours straight, Vlad. You don’t have to lie about this,” Danny said as evenly as possible. Neutrality was his best option; any emotion he expressed would be fuel for one of Vlad’s tantrums.

“I don’t see what that has to do with anything,” Vlad evaded. He still wasn’t looking at Danny. Vlad kept his gaze firmly on the now pockmarked and scorched surface of the table. Thankfully the heat had radiated outward from the point of contact; there was no incriminating handprint.

“It’s your core powers,” Danny explained. “It’ll get better soon, I promise. But you might want to hide in the ghost zone for a few days, or maybe find a nice volcano to sit in. When I came into my ice powers I pulled the temperature down to below zero just on our street. After that, Tucker accidentally tripped on the way to school and ended up with frostbite from falling into me. You’re going to be really hot and miserable for a while. Stuff is going to randomly catch on fire. You’re going to effect the general atmosphere of wherever you’re at. Find someplace hot in the ghost zone and just bake for a while,” Danny advised.

Finally, Vlad looked up at Danny. He looked like he had tasted something bitter. “Stop gloating, Daniel, it’s unbecoming,” he gritted out through clenched teeth. “Just because you can do this one wonderfully powerful thing doesn’t give you the right to-”

“Oh that’s rich coming from you,” Danny interrupted with a scowl. Danny took a calming breath. Fighting with Vlad wouldn’t fix anything at the moment. “I’m not gloating. Getting control of your core absolutely sucks. I already did it and now I can tell you what’s happening to you. This is literally the only time this has ever happened to us, Vlad. Just for once I have the knowledge and I’m trying to share so please, just listen to me.”

Now Vlad looked downright murderous. “I offered to teach you Daniel but you rejected-”

“Shut up fruitloop I’m not interested in rehashing this argument again. We literally scream at each other about this twice a week minimum. I’m not you, this isn’t that, please get out of my kitchen before you set my house on fire,” Danny reiterated.

“You expect me to believe you?” Vlad asked incredulously. He reached back and began rubbing at the back of his neck, trying to ease the tension. Danny would bet all the money he didn’t have that Vlad didn’t even know he was doing it. “After all we’ve been through, you expect me to take your words at face value and pop off into the ghost zone, leaving my assets and schemes vulnerable? I think not.”

“How about a gesture of good will then?” Danny offered suddenly, a crazy plan beginning to form in his mind. He just might be able to make this work and as an added bonus, Vlad might shut up for a whole minute.

“You have absolutely nothing that I want,” Vlad declared darkly. They both knew that was a lie. Danny had several things that Vlad wanted, including but not limited to himself.

“I can get rid of that headache you don’t have,” Danny promised eagerly.

Vlad paused, finally pulling his arm back from massaging his neck. “If you think a few aspirin are going to-”

“I’m going to use my core powers to short yours out for a little while. It should give you enough time to hide whatever your paranoia thinks you should have hidden before you head off for a few days,” Danny said confidently. He was pretty sure it would work; he had a lot more confidence in it than most of his other plans.

Vlad stared hard at Danny while he contemplated his options. If he was worried about his dignity, Danny thought, then he was an idiot. Neither of them had any dignity left in regard to the other. And if the headache was bad enough that even Danny noticed it, Vlad must have been in excruciating pain; halfas could withstand pain that would have made a human pass out so whatever Vlad was feeling must have been awful.

Finally, Vlad asked, “And if I were to allow this invasion of my person, what exactly would you have to do to alleviate this headache?” Vlad asked cautiously. Well at least he was admitting the headache existed. Danny hoped that meant they were making progress.

“Honestly? I’m going to rub your neck. But with spoooooky ghost powers,” Danny said, wiggling his fingers and flashing his eyes for ridiculous effect.

Much to both of their surprise, Vlad actually chuckled. “Really, little badger? Spooky ghost powers?” Vlad asked sarcastically but he was grinning so Danny let it slide. There were times, few and far between, when Danny actually felt decent talking to Vlad. They were the only two of their kind, after all. Vlad was literally the only person he could say stupid things like that to and have him understand the humor so personally. Sure, Tucker and Sam would have laughed but for whatever reason Danny just felt that Vlad would appreciate it more. When he wasn’t being a villainous dick, anyway.

Danny smiled back. “So can I give it a shot?” he asked, wanting to make absolutely sure he had permission. It was for his own safety; Danny didn’t need Vlad freaking out and attacking when Danny used his powers on him.

“By all means, cure my headache with your spooky ghost powers,” Vlad drawled as he rolled his shoulders. “Truthfully I’m surprised at you, Daniel. This help is unexpected. And I never would have anticipated a free neck massage.”

Danny shrugged and moved to stand behind Vlad. He was really going to do this, wasn’t he? “Like I said, core powers suck,” Danny repeated for the umpteenth time. “I’m going to chill my hands now and touch your neck. If it’s too cold you’ve gotta tell me, okay? I wasn’t joking about giving Tuck frostbite.”

“I thought you had control of your core!” Vlad exclaimed. “Daniel if you give me frostbite I swear I’ll-”

“You’d heal in ten minutes. Try that on someone who doesn’t know about your healing factor,” Danny retorted with a grin that Vlad thankfully couldn’t see. Ignoring Vlad’s muttering he continued, “I do have control. But my idea of cold and your idea of cold are going to be two different things. In my ghost form I can move through temperatures on the Kelvin scale. Right now I could probably walk around the South Pole in swim trunks. Your core is all out of whack. You’re setting things on fire one minute and the next you can’t even melt an ice cube. Human body temperature might even feel too cold to you right now, let alone the kind of temperatures I can reach. I won’t know until I try and if it hurts you have to say something.”

Without waiting for another undoubtedly scathing response, Danny chilled his hands down to what he guessed to be around fifty degrees Fahrenheit and gently placed one on the back of Vlad’s neck. “Oh!” Vlad blurted unintentionally. Danny yanked his hand away, assuming Vlad was uncomfortable but then Vlad growled, “Put your hand back on my neck this instant.”

Chuckling, Danny laid both of his hands around the back of Vlad’s neck. His fingers were splayed out around the sides while his thumbs traveled up into the very bottom of Vlad’s hairline. The idea was to maximize the amount of bare skin he could touch. Danny closed his eyes and tried to sense Vlad with his ghost powers. He had never tried it before but Danny figured it couldn’t be too different from his usual ghost sense. There was Vlad, a dull red energy under his hands. The other halfa’s core seemed pained. As Danny watched, a bright red flash whipped out of the dull core that shined so brightly Danny nearly lost his concentration. Vlad’s power was ridiculously bright; Danny wondered how he had never noticed it before. Reaching towards his own core again, Danny sent out what he hoped was a soothing pulse directly from his hands into Vlad. It wasn’t meant to be a flash of cold; Danny was sort of thinking of the cooling sensation of peppermint or menthol rather than a winter storm.

Vlad gasped again but Danny ignored him in favor of watching his core. Something must have worked because the flickering stopped. Slowly, the luminosity of Vlad’s core stabilized as Danny poured more power into him. Vlad was groaning but he didn’t sound pained; Danny was sure that if he was hurting Vlad, the older halfa would have no qualms about blasting him into the ground.

Slowly, Danny came back into his own head until he could no longer visualize Vlad’s core. Opening his eyes Danny noticed he had accidentally covered himself, Vlad, and the entire kitchen in a shimmering frost that didn’t look entirely natural. It seemed to glow but as soon and Danny tried to focus on it the frost seemed to shift. Odd.

“Woops,” Danny said. He was a little embarrassed; he had promised Vlad he was in control, after all, and there was nothing controlled about freezing an entire room. “My bad, fruitloop. Do you feel okay?”

Vlad’s head lolled back into Danny’s chest, inadvertently forcing Danny’s thumbs deeper into his silver hair. His eyes were unfocused, Danny noted with concern. Maybe he had over done it. “What did you do?” the older man asked thickly. If it had been anyone else in the entire world, Danny would have said that Vlad sounded awed. But since it was Vlad that was impossible.

Danny shifted his hands so that his fingers were threaded through Vlad’s hair and pressed lightly against the back of his skull. Just because his core was stable didn’t mean his headache was gone. “Took a look at your core,” Danny explained as he began to wiggle his fingers lightly. Honestly he had no idea how to massage someone’s head and he was feeling a little stupid. “I’ve gotta say, fruitloop, yours looks pretty cool. It’s super bright and had these things bursting out of it like a freaking solar flare. I poured a little power into it and calmed it down for now. It’s back to its normal bright red glory, I guess.”

Vlad didn’t respond for a while, opting to simply stare back at Danny with slightly furrowed brows. That position couldn’t have been helping his headache. Danny stared back and slowly pulled the unnatural frost back from both their bodies. He left the kitchen alone for the time being; the cooler temperature felt nice.

Finally Vlad asked, “You could see my ghost core?” There was that not-awe again. It was starting to make Danny uncomfortable.

“Yeah?” he replied cautiously. “Is that a bad thing? I’ve never tried it before but I just kinda reached out and there you were. Shining and stuff. Did I mention how fricking bright you are because damn Vlad your core is awesome.” Normally Danny would have never admitted something like that to Vlad but it was the truth. Danny didn’t have the words to accurately convey just how he felt at being allowed to see Vlad like that. It didn’t stop Vlad from being a psycho and Danny wasn’t about to be besties with him, but he felt that it had to mean something.

Instead of being smug, Vlad looked a little sad. He also still looked totally drugged out. Danny had definitely over done it with the cooling peppermint power. “Thank you, Daniel,” he sighed. “I wish…”

Danny waited but Vlad didn’t seem to want to finish that though. A new idea occurred to Danny; tugging gently at the man’s stupid ponytail, Danny asked, “Can I take your hair down?”

“Whatever you’d like,” Vlad assented absently. He had gone back to staring forlornly at the younger man. Danny didn’t think he had done anything wrong; it wasn’t like he had directly touched Vlad’s core. Some ghostly instinct had told him that was a line he shouldn’t cross lightly.

Danny pulled the pretentious red ribbon out of Vlad’s hair and began gently carding his fingers through the soft strands. He wondered absently what color Vlad’s hair had been as a child; even in his parents’ college photos Vlad’s hair was bright silver. It should have been weird, sitting there running his hand’s through his arch nemesis’s hair, but all Danny felt was a strange sense of contentment. This certainly wasn’t the outcome he had been expecting when Vlad knocked on the door earlier that morning.  
Calm moments with Vlad like this (although there had been nothing quite like this previously) were always strange. It was moments of shared understanding like a sarcastic quip or a glance that no one else understood that made Danny feel undeniably alone. They were literally the only two of their species. Not human, not ghost, not even something in between. They were something else entirely and it was a little frightening. This incident had made it even more so; Danny had unwittingly allowed himself to believe that Vlad really did have all the answers. This had shaken that hitherto unknown faith. Vlad had no idea what was going on. What other things were to come that Vlad had not experienced? Could one develop abilities that the other wouldn’t? Were their similarities only superficial? Maybe Danny was doomed to a completely different experience than Vlad’s. It was an unnerving thought.

A warm hand on his cheek interrupted his thoughts. “Daniel are you alright?” Vlad asked with concern. “You’re shaking. Did you use too much power?”

“I’m fine,” he lied, trying to brush off his sudden fears and focus on Vlad’s lingering melancholy. “How’s your headache? I think I might have whammied you a little too hard. You seem a little drugged.”

“I feel wonderful,” Vlad assured him, dropping his hand from Danny’s face. Danny wondered why that contact hadn’t bothered him and then decided to file it under the ‘things to over examine later’ category. “Which means you probably overdid it. You could literally run your fingers through my hair for the rest of eternity and I would let you. Why were you shaking? And don’t lie to me again.”

“Just a little freaked out by the possibilities of the unknown,” Danny admitted vaguely. When Vlad made a prompting noise, Danny sighed and elaborated. “I’ve been faking this whole halfa thing for the past three years. And you’re right, I don’t know what I’m doing. But this has me a little freaked out. I’ve had my powers for three years. You’ve had yours for twenty. Why did I start getting my core powers so much sooner than you? What other things are going to happen to me differently than they happened to you? And what’s still left out there for you to go through? I just think- and no offense at how awful this sounds- I think I liked the confusion and fear of those first few months before we met better than whatever panic I’m feeling right now. At some point, even though I kinda hate you and you’ve done nothing but be a pain in my ass, you still sorta became my benchmark? I don’t know, it’s weird. Pretend I didn’t mention it.”

Vlad mulled over Danny’s words, giving them a lot more thought than Danny expected him to. It must have been because of Danny’s residual power still making its way through his system and causing Vlad to stay mellow. He seemed down right amiable if still a little sad around the eyes. “I know this isn’t what you want to hear, but I don’t have the answers to any of those questions,” Vlad admitted solemnly. Danny hadn’t really expected him to. “Although I am flattered by your unintentional regard. I suspect I will loathe having told you this once my stupor wears off, but discovering you was the most important moment of my life after gaining my powers. I handled it poorly, as I do most things in my life when I want something. I’m not apologizing for my actions and I still think that you’re a meddlesome teenager who has no idea what he’s dealing with. It wasn’t simply that I was no longer alone; after two decades I had become accustomed to the idea of being the only one of my kind. Our kind. You make me question ideas that I have held onto for years. The very questions you just asked me, the ones that are causing you so much fear, have been a source of joy and anticipation for me. What are our differences? How are we similar? Is there such a thing as a normal halfa, or will each of us have an entirely unique experience? What other abilities lay dormant inside us and how do we unlock them? All of these questions and more have been circling my head since the moment we met.

“As for our core powers, I have several hypothesis. Ghosts cannot readily access their cores, nor would they want to. It would unravel them, alter their very sense of self. The Box Ghost would cease to be the Box Ghost if he tried to utilize his core; it would probably destroy him, honestly. Along a similar line, humans can in no way, shape, or form touch their souls. It is impossible despite the power they hold. What you and I have are cores. They are similar in form to a ghost’s core, in power to a human’s soul, yet we can manipulate them freely. Well, you can manipulate yours freely. I will get there in time. From here, other questions arise. We already have access to plasma, energy, ectoplasm…there is an entire arsenal at our disposal. Why would we need elemental based abilities? And how did we, the only two in existence, end up with cores the polar opposite of each other? The chances of that are astronomical."

“We don’t have souls?” Danny interjected suddenly. That was a disconcerting thought.

“Truthfully? I have no idea. Unlike you, I cannot see through the murky depths of an individuals’ inner being,” Vlad admitted airily as though he wasn’t completely distorting Danny’s world view. “What a wonderful ability. I hope I can do it as well once my core is settled.”

“Is that why you’re sad? Because you can’t see your core?” Danny asked. It seemed like such a trivial thing. Danny wouldn’t have even thought about it if Vlad hadn’t needed his help. He hadn’t even bothered to look at his own core; he suspected it would be green and blue, sort of glowing and icy and a little off putting unlike Vlad’s blazing one. It had seemed so invitingly warm despite the power it radiated being unmistakably Vlad.

“I have been trying for years. I could feel you while you were in mine,” Vlad admitted, closing his eyes. Danny moved from tugging gently at the ends of his hair to running his fingers along the other man’s scalp. “I had expected it to feel repulsive given how I detest you. But it didn’t. I could feel your determination, your compassion. Your awe was unexpected. Clearly you had seen something in me that had impressed you. But I have no way of knowing what. And then, like a balm to the hypothetical soul, you reached out and calmed the storm. I have never felt closer to another individual in my entire existence, and it was just my luck to have to experience such a thing with you.”

“Sorry for projecting, I’ll try not to think so loud next time and get my gross feelings all over you,” Danny snarked to hide his discomfort. Vlad needed to hurry up and shake off this funk before Danny had to change his opinions about the man or worse, Danny’s parents got home.

“Next time I intend to be able to see your core as well, Daniel,” Vlad promised serenely. “Given the way it felt, I imagine it to be beautiful.”

Danny flushed and reminded himself that Vlad was a little out of his mind. “Don’t get your hopes up,” he muttered. Danny sincerely doubted that his core would be anything more than a sad, green little chunk of ice. It fit his aesthetic and was functional; Danny didn’t need a beautiful glowing inner self. “If we’re lucky there won’t be a next time. Something would have to go seriously wrong for us to need to do this again.”

“I rather wish you’d let me,” Vlad insisted. Tilting his head forward Vlad ordered, “Press your thumbs up the length of my neck until you reach the bottom of my occipital bone.”

Danny did as he was bid, grasping eagerly at the change of topic. “I never said I knew what I was doing, only that I could help,” he pointed out cheekily. Glancing at the clock on the microwave, Danny was shocked to realize that they had been like this for over an hour. How long had Danny spent with Vlad’s core? The constant use of his powers hadn’t tired Danny out in the least. Maybe he really was getting better at this.

“You always want to help,” Vlad grunted as Danny hit a particularly tight knot. Danny broke away from the requested pattern in order to firmly rub over the spot with his thumb until Vlad suddenly slumped a bit, completely boneless. “I should hate you for how good this feels.”

Danny grinned. “Fruitloop, I can guarantee that I am never going to forget this,” he promised as he resumed running his thumbs along Vlad’s neck, this time on the sides and up behind the man’s ears and the very back of his jaw. “I mean, I’m not going to bring it up or anything. But next time you’re kicking my ass all I’m going to be able to think about is how much of a noodle you are right now.”

“I am not a noodle you insolent brat,” Vlad grumped. The effect was finally starting to wear off but for some reason neither of them were willing to stop quite yet.

“You’re nearly half asleep on my kitchen table while I rub your head with my spooky ghost powers,” Danny snickered. Vlad tried to growl in response but Danny reached around a gently dragged a single fingernail along the outer edge of Vlad’s ear down to where his neck disappeared into his crisp white shirt. Vlad actually collapsed onto the table at that point and Danny couldn’t stop his laughter if he wanted to. Where the idea had come from to play with Vlad’s ear, he wasn’t entirely sure. But the effect was hilarious.

“Daniel!” he barked indignantly, but Danny grabbed both of his ears and began to tug gently on the lobes. Under his fingers Danny could feel two little balls of hard tissue. Were Vlad’s ears pierced? That knowledge was surprisingly intimate. “Enough, my headache is gone!”

“What’s the problem, Vlad?” Danny teased. Vlad’s new position across the table meant that Danny had to be leaned over him at an odd angle. Rather than crouch over the older man, Danny opted to hover horizontally above him, thus giving him greater access. This was the best thing to happen all day. “What happened to ‘I’ll let you play with my hair for eternity’?”

“Those are my ears not my hair and your power has worn off, as you very well know,” Vlad growled. The effect was somewhat ruined by the fact that his face was mashed into one of the piles of papers that had miraculously survived the entire event. “Now unhand me.”

“Chill, Vlad,” Danny said with one final tug to his ears. He’d had his fun and since Vlad was feeling better that meant he could get the hell out of Danny’s house. Pulling the red ribbon out of his pocket, Danny ran his fingers through Vlad’s hair a few more times to get out the tangles. How hard could it be to make a stupid ponytail? Gathering the hair together at the base of Vlad’s neck, Danny slipped the ribbon under the hair and tied it into a bow like Vlad always seemed to wear it.  
Gliding around to Vlad’s side, Danny was surprised to see the older halfa’s eyes glowing red. He didn’t seem angry though. Danny’s own eyes flicked green in response, curiosity flaring. The look on Vlad’s face was completely unfamiliar to Danny.  
“What’s up, fruitloop? You’re making scary eyes at me,” Danny joked.

“So are you,” Vlad retorted. Obviously he was back to his usual level of forthrightness.

Danny hovered on his side, staring intently and refusing to back down. Something had happened in between playing with Vlad’s ears (which was a disturbing sentence out of context) and tying the older man’s hair back (also pretty weird).

“Daniel, I-”

SLAM. Whatever Vlad was about to say was drowned out by the front door being flung open. “Danny-boy! V-Man! We’re back!” Jack bellowed.

Danny fell out of the air in shock. “My parents!” he whisper yelled. The kitchen was a disaster; every surface was covered in frost, Vlad’s papers were strewn across the floor, and the kitchen table was sporting a large black scorch mark. Danny scrambled to pick up the paperwork and dissipate the frost at the same time. Vlad readjusted his collar and tie and smoothed his hair down. Danny had just enough time to slam the stack of papers down on the table before his father walked in.

“There you guys are!” his dad exclaimed as his picked Vlad up out of his chair. Crushing his best friend to his chest Jack said, “V-Man, you’re sticking around for dinner right? It’s meatloaf night!”

Danny turned to put his forgotten bowl of pasta back in the fridge and tried to suppress his laughter. Vlad looked like he was going to pop from his dad’s ‘affection.’

“Jack,” Vlad wheezed as his face slowly turned from red to purple. “Can’t *wheeze* br-”

“Sure you can, Danny makes excellent meatloaf, don’t you Danny?” Jack asked rhetorically, completely unaware of Vlad’s struggles against his bulk.

Taking pity on the other halfa for the second time that day, Danny decided to intercede. “Dad could you put Vlad down? He can’t eat if he’s not breathing,” Danny pointed out reasonably.

“V-Man, why didn’t you say anything?” Jack asked, casually dropping Vlad onto the ground. All that work Danny had put into relieving Vlad’s headache was going down the drain. Before Vlad could answer a wordless scream echoed from the other room. “Woops, knew I forgot something. COMING MADDIE!"

Danny reached out a hand and pulled Vlad up off the floor. “What do I have to do to get out of dinner with your family?” Vlad asked seriously.

“I’ll take care of it,” Danny promised. “I want you gone before your core starts acting up again. Get your stupid paperwork together. And knock it off with the scary eyes, would ya? What if my dad had noticed?”

Vlad looked startled for a moment. “They’re still-?” he asked vaguely, gesturing towards his face.

Danny nodded as they both started gathering the papers together. “They’re not glowing but they’re definitely red,” he muttered. “Is that normal? Not noticing?”

“No, it’s not,” Vlad responded in an equally hushed tone. From under the table he produced a briefcase that Danny had somehow failed to notice despite his hours of keeping watch. Vlad closed his eyes and screwed up his face as though he was concentrating hard. Opening them again revealed his standard human blue irises. “Better?”

“Yeah, just in time,” Danny replied as his parents entered the kitchen. His mother was covered head to toe in purple goop. “Geeze mom, what happened to you?”

“I don’t. Want. To talk about it,” she gritted out. Glaring at the room at large, Maddie continued, “Vlad, I’m afraid I’m going to have to excuse myself before this gel eats through my skin like it did the Fenton Assault Vehicle. It was lovely to see you.” Turning on her heel Maddie made her way towards the chemical shower in the lab, leaving a trail of purple footprints hissing slightly in her wake.

“Dad, Vlad’s going to head out,” Danny chimed in quickly. “He’s got a meeting in the morning with the people who’re repairing his office.”

“Aww, but what about meatloaf?” Jack pouted. “V-Man, are you sure?”

“I’m afraid so, Jack,” Vlad lied. Danny was a little surprised at him for going along with his plan. “You know how it goes, mayoral responsibilities and all.”

Jack slumped. “But we didn’t even get to spend any time together!”

Vlad’s eye twitched ever so slightly. “I assure you Jack, Daniel was more than adequate company,” Vlad insisted, staring at Danny as he did so as though trying to convey his sincerity to Danny. He should have been more focused on getting Jack off his back. “He was an invaluable help to my work and a joy with whom to spend the afternoon.”

“If you’ve made up your mind I guess I can’t stop you,” Jack said dejectedly. “Alright, V-Man, I should go check on Maddie. She always gets so touchy when her skin is melting off, I just don’t understand. I’ll call you later, see about dinner sometime soon. See Vladdie out, would ya Danny?”

“Sure dad,” Danny chirped. Clapping Vlad on the shoulder so hard that he nearly fell again, Jack scampered out of the room. “Come on, Vladdie, I’ll walk you to your car.”

“Never call me that again,” Vlad menaced, briefly flashing his eyes at the younger halfa. At least this time they reverted back to blue on their own.

Danny snickered. “Don’t worry, you’ll always be fruitloop to me,” Danny promised brightly as they headed towards the front door.

Stopping just shy of the threshold (Jack had left the door open again) Vlad turned to face Danny. “That shouldn’t be a comfort to me, little badger, and yet for some reason I find myself glad that your regard or lack thereof can be considered a constant in my life,” Vlad said with a heavy sigh.

“I aim to please?” Danny quipped uncertainly. “You’re not going to say thank you, right? Because that would be weird.”

Vlad raised a perfectly manicured, mocking eyebrow. “Given all of our bizarre interactions today, such as you stabilizing my core and playing with my hair and ears, my gratitude is where you draw the line?”

“Don’t say it like that,” Danny whined. It really wasn’t a big deal. “You’re making it weird.”

“Alright, badger, I’ll leave it for the time being,” Vlad acquiesced. “But I will remember this.”

Danny smirked and failed to suppress the urge to get in at least one shot before the other man left. “Don’t worry you big noodle, I won’t be forgetting any of this,” Danny guaranteed.

Vlad scowled, opened his mouth as though to say something, and then closed it with a shake of his head. Danny would have sworn that Vlad looked almost…fond? Of Danny? No, he had to have been mistaken. Vlad settled for saying, “See you soon, little badger,” before stepping out onto the porch and out of Danny’s hair. For the moment, anyway. Danny knew that they would be back to their normal fighting sooner rather than later.

Closing the door, Danny trekked up the stairs and into the solitude of his bedroom. His bed had never felt more comfortable. Grabbing his cell phone on the bedside table, Danny started flipping through the thirteen unread messages from Sam and Tucker. He was pointedly not thinking about his day with Vlad or whatever purple slime his parents had tracked into the house.

“DANIEL FENTON WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO THE KITCHEN TABLE?”

Well, there goes the afternoon, Danny thought with a cringe.


End file.
